Where Is Calderon?

There are just some things I do not understand in the world and this place is one of those things.  Somehow each day in Yangshuo is better than the last.  I have really enjoyed myself here and I may stop back here again on my way home.  Today I took a tour of Silver Cave.  If you have ever been to a cave then it is nothing new to you.  Caves are interesting, but the tourist caves all pretty much look the same.  That being said though I still enjoyed the tour (even if it was in Chinese).  Here is the steps leading into the cave.



The use of different colors in all the caverns and cracks made it easy to see holes and gauge the depth and shape of the cave.  Check out this next picture.  Notice how there is a bridge and you can see the cave above and below it.  It was a really deep area of the cave.



Actually if you look closely the bottom portion is really a reflection off of a pool inside the cave.  It took me about 3 minutes to figure that out.  The water was so still that the reflection came across perfect to the naked eye.  I only realized it was a reflection because I saw a small dark object in the water.  It looked like some kind of connector and I thought it was a piece to a net which they put across the opening so no one would fall.  After looking for a few minutes from different angles I realized that it was a reflection.  It was an amazing sight.  Unfortunately I don't think the picture will do it justice.  On the way out of the cave we ran into a little bit of local traffic.



In the van some of the other tourists (all locals to China) that were part of my group asked if I would like to join them for lunch.  Normally I would have said no out of fear of something wrong going on, but I felt I could trust them because they were on vacation too (obviously) and Yangshuo had a way of getting me to relax.  So I accepted and we had a very traditional Chinese lunch with 2 kinds of tofu, greens, corn soup, some kind of beef, beer fish (a local favorite), egg, and of course steamed rice.  The meal was delicious.  I really enjoyed it and the company.  There English was not great, but it was good enough that we could converse.  In the back of my mind I was still worried that maybe they will try to stick me with the bill, but no.  Everything worked out great.  We all split the bill so it was only about $4 each.  A couple of interesting things I noticed at lunch.  First, we all shared from the same main dishes.  The table had a lazy Susan (spinning center piece) and we just spun it around to get what we wanted.  You didn't serve food onto your dish and then eat from there.  You just grabbed a bite at a time from whatever you wanted.  Second, the plates, cups, silverware were all shrinkwrapped when we got there (for sanitary reasons obviously), but what I found interesting was what happened next.  One of the guys came around the table and poured tea into my bowl and then my tea cup.  I thought he wasn't paying attention when he poured the tea into my soup bowl, but then I noticed he did the same thing for everyone else.  The everyone started to rinse their silverware and bowls and cups in the tea.  I was told that they do this to clean everything off.  Then they dump the tea into a big bowl which is later taken from the table.  I had never seen this or even heard about this before.  I would have figured that being shrinkwrapped we were good to use the stuff.  I guess you see and learn something new everyday when traveling (and probably at home too if you pay attention).  These are my friends that I had lunch with and you can see the food on the table.



I was also very nervous during the meal that I was going to look like a fool with the chopsticks or eat something disgusting and need to throw up or something.  Luckily everything went smoothly.  I actually enjoyed all the dishes and I did okay with the chopsticks.  When we got there I told them to order and I would eat whatever they got.  They were worried that I would not like Chinese food, but soon they felt better as they saw me eating everything.  After that I hung out with one of my friends and had coffee while the others went to the river.  I didn't go on the river tour because I had just done that the day before.  As we parted we exchanged our hotel info in the hopes that we could meet again for dinner.  Unfortunately at the time of this writing I have not seen my friends again and don't think we will be having dinner together.  However, it was a wonderful day and I am sad that I am leaving tomorrow.  I am looking forward to my next trip back here as it may be a more extended trip.  I have really started to get intot the flow of this place.  In fact as I got back to my hotel I asked the counter girl how long it would take to get to the airport because I have an early flight tomorrow.  SHe then asked if I wanted to go by bicycle (foot powered) or taxi.  She then thought about what she said and we laughed.  We joked that if I wanted to ride a bike I should leave right now, but if I want a taxi I can leave tomorrow morning.  At the same time another one of the counter girls came up and asked what was going on and she got in on the action too.  This simple little interaction is something that would not have been possible in any of the other places I have been to.  This town has enchanted me and will always hold a special place in my heart.  I have some great memories of Yangshuo.